Quest Diagnostics, Cambridge, Mass, signed a definitive agreement today to purchase the clinical outreach laboratory business of UMass Memorial Medical Center, a member of UMass Memorial Health Care.
The sale is the first step toward establishing a long-term relationship between the two organizations that could result in UMass Memorial taking a financial stake in a new entity that would develop and operate a state-of-the-art laboratory in Massachusetts in the future. The relationship will result in a number of benefits for patients, physicians, hospitals, and health plans, including even higher quality service, expanded information connectivity options, and reduced laboratory testing costs.
Quest Diagnostics’ full-service laboratory and its Athena Diagnostics specialty neurology testing subsidiary in Worcester, Mass, will move to a new facility that is expected to be centrally located in the area. This facility, when fully operational, will perform the testing currently performed at UMass Memorial’s Worcester-based outreach laboratories, the Quest Diagnostics testing currently performed in Cambridge, and the testing performed by Athena. The full transition of services will likely take place over the next 18 to 24 months, with details to be announced as they are finalized.
[source: Quest]
